|
Capt.
Scott Horowitz shoved the dual Hynautic controls forward on the deep-V
Carolina Classic 35, and the boat’s flared bow charged headlong
at 30-plus mph toward the three- to four-foot head sea as we exited Long
Island’s Shinnecock Inlet. I looked over at Bruce Madsen from David
Bofill Marine, which had provided this test boat. Grasping the optional
Ashley marlin tower with one hand, I stuck my head over the port-side
gunwale to gauge the boat’s reaction. I figured to get wet and tossed
around, but curiosity made me look anyway. The boat dispatched the swell
as if it were merely a Doppler-affected ripple in a glass of water, and,
to borrow a well-used metaphor, I was dry as a bone.
The
seas were remnants of an October blow the day before this sunny, unseasonably
warm test day. The swells provided a good yardstick for judging the bluewater
performance of this Lou Codega-designed Express-style sportfisherman.
“I give Lou all the credit,” says Mac Privott, president of
the nine-year-old Carolina Classic Boats company. Privott is modest with
regards to his part in the 35’s performance; he’s been building
traditional Carolina-flare-styled boats since he co-founded Albemarle
in the mid-’70s. He knows how to make this design work.
Excited
by the initial results in the ocean, we made several more runs. The swells
rising up to meet with the 35’s solid fiberglass hull had little
influence on the heavily constructed, 25,000-pound-plus boat, whose fiberglass-encapsulated
stringer system is largely responsible for her strength. Privott told
me that he builds all his boats of solid fiberglass top to bottom, and
for good reason. “We warranty that hull [for its] lifetime, so I
got to build it so I’m not going to worry about it when we’re
finished with it,” he explains in his heavy North Carolina drawl.
The
35’s entry into the seas was smooth, and the spray exploded out
and away. Turned stern-to she provided an equally agreeable ride and offered
excellent tracking. In fact, she performed well up sea, down sea, and
cross sea, but I’m partial to her head-sea performance, as I enjoyed
watching her flare in action.
Carolina
Classic’s other deep-V convertibles—the 25 and 28—offer
a 24-degree transom deadrise, but for the company’s largest boat,
Privott made some changes. “We dropped the stern back from 24 to
18 degrees, but [added] more V in the forefoot, so you get a softer entry,”
he explains. “At her weight she’s not going to move that much.”
He adds that the 35’s 13'6" beam and wide chines also “stop
the roll.”
Sometimes
deep-V boats can be liberal when it comes to fuel usage, but not so with
the Carolina Classic 35. During our speed runs on a much calmer Shinnecock
Bay, the 35 made an average top speed of 39.9 mph while the optional twin
480-hp Cummins 480C-E Diamond Series diesels ran at 2680 rpm, burning
about 48 gph. (Worthy of note is that the 480s have a projected fuel burn
of 51.6 gph at the rated 2600 rpm, according to Cummins.)
Next
page > Carolina Classic 35 continued
> Page 1, 2, 3,
4, 5,
6
|